MYER, MORRIS (Mayer; 1876–1944), Romanian-born Yiddish editor and Zionist worker, settled in London in 1902 and became active in Yiddish journalism and the Labor movement. A member of the Po'alei Zion, he became prominent in the British Zionist Federation and was a delegate to Zionist Congresses. From 1919 he sat on the Board of Deputies of British Jews and its joint foreign committee. Through the popular Yiddish daily, Die Tsayt, which he founded in 1913 and which existed until 1950, he was a prime molder of opinion among Yiddish readers in England when Whitechapel was a hub of Jewish life. He founded the Federation of Jewish Relief Organizations and was a Yiddish theater enthusiast and perceptive drama critic, as seen in his lively Yidish Teater in London 1902–1942 ("Yiddish Theater in London, 1902–1942," 1943). His Yiddish writings include Der Sveting System, Vi Vert Men fun ihr Poter ("The Sweating System, How to Abolish It?" 1907), A Yidishe Utopye ("A Jewish Utopia," 1918), Dzhordzh Elyot, di Englishe Nevie fun der Renesans fun Idishen Folk ("George Eliot, English Prophetess of the Jewish People's Renaissance," 1920), and Dos Organizirte Yidntum in England ("Organized Jewry in England," 1943).
Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1930), 388–94; LNYL, 5 (1963), 602–4 (incl. bibl.). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Prager, Yiddish Culture in Britain: A Guide (1990), 443–4.
[Joseph Leftwich /
Leonard Prager (2nd ed.)]
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.